The invention relates to a glass conduit, particularly to be used as a feeder, a working tank and/or as a distributing conduit of a glass melting furnace. The glass conduit includes, successively from the interior toward the exterior, a trough chanelling the glass melt and a trough cover, each made of a fire-proof material, an insulation which includes several individual form bodies, an external casing which at least partially surrounds this insulation arrangement and a beam configuration which supports the glass conduit at least at its bottom and longitudinally.
So far, glass conduits of this kind have been erected as one piece and at the location of use, i.e. in the glassworks. Typically, the conduits have a length of approximately 10 to 15 m; also considering the heavy weight, it is impossible to transport the glass conduit. The beam configuration which supports the weight is generally erected as a so-called "steel boat" in which the insulating parts as well as the trough and the trough covering are manually incorporated. Depending on the size and length of the glass conduit the building time required amounts to approximately two weeks. When the glass conduit is defective or requires overhauling or repairing, the entire furnace must be shut down over a longer period of time. This involves loss of production which negatively affects the yield of the furnace operator. Another disadvantage with conventional glass melting conduits is that during tempering and operation of the conduit the joints of the trough can become leaky such that the melt flows into the insulation arrangement thus rendering the latter ineffective. This adversely affects the production since the molten glass is of a poorer quality and leads to faulty products. Since the glass conduit is configured as one piece, this leakage can often be detected only very late. It is very laborious and requires a time and labor intensive partial disassembling of the conduit to detect the leaking joint to be sealed again.
From U.S. Pat. No. 2,494,974 a glass furnace is known which includes two or more segments which are successively disposed in longitudinal direction. The individual segments differ from each other with respect to their insulating properties. This is accomplished for the individual parts of the furnace, the trough, through cover and external thermal insulation by employing different materials. With regard to the remaining properties, particularly in the mechanical-constructional design, this glass furnace corresponds to conventional constructions; hence, in this case, too, the entire furnace must be manually erected at the site of operation. Therefore, this known furnace also has the above stated disadvantages.
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide a glass conduit of the aforesaid kind which does not have these disadvantages and, in particular, can be repaired, assembled and disassembled more efficiently and also can be operated more safely.